Cannabis plant named &#39;zlt&#39;

ABSTRACT

The cannabis cultivar ZLT can be briefly characterized by towering green, white and purple streaking resin-coated flowers. With very short internodal space and vigorous growth characteristics, this cultivar is able to produce very high yields for both flower and hash production. ZLT yields as much as 6% from fresh frozen material. Flower clusters have been observed at over 1-1.5′ of uninterrupted colas.

Latin name of the genus and species: Cannabis sativa.

Variety denomination: ‘ZLT’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct Cannabis cultivardesignated “ZLT”.

TAXONOMY AND NOMENCLATURE

Cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana, is a genus of floweringplants that includes at least three species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabisindica, and Cannabis ruderalis as determined by plant phenotypes andsecondary metabolite profiles. In practice however, cannabisnomenclature is often used incorrectly or interchangeably. Cannabisliterature can be found referring to all cannabis varieties as “sativas”or all cannabinoid producing plants as “indicas”. Indeed, thepromiscuous crosses of indoor cannabis breeding programs have made itdifficult to distinguish varieties, with most cannabis being sold in theUnited States having features of both sativa and indica species.

Human cultivation history of Cannabis dates back 8000 years (Schultes, RE., 1970, Random thoughts and queries on the botany of Cannabis. Pages11-38 in: CRB Joyce, and S H Curry eds., THE BOTANY AND CHEMISTRY OFCANNABIS. J. & A. Churchill. London, England). Hemp cloth recovered inEurope dates back 6000 years (Small, E, Beckstead, H D, and Chan, A,1975, The evolution of cannabinoid phenotypes in Cannabis, ECONOMICBOTANY 29(3):219-232). The written record of the pharmacologicproperties of Cannabis goes back more than 4000 years (Ti, H. 2737 BC.NEI JING SU WEN HUANG TI, Yellow Emperor's Classic on Internal Medicine;referred to without citation in Small et al. 1975 Supra).

The taxonomy and nomenclature of the highly variable genus Cannabis(Emboden, W A, 1974, ECONOMIC BOTANY 28(3):304-310; Small, E andCronquist, A, 1976, TAXON 25(4):405-435; Small E and Cronquist, A, 1977,TAXON 26(1):110; Hillig, K W and Mahlberg, P G, 2004, American Journalof Botany 91(6):966-975), remains in question. This is in spite of thefact that its formal scientific name, ‘Cannabis sativa L.’, assigned byCarolus Linneaus (Linnaeus, C, 1753, SPECIES PLANTARUM, 2:1027, Salvius,Stockholm, Facsimile edition, 1957-1959, Ray Society, London, U.K.), isone of the oldest established names in botanical history and is stillaccepted to this day. Another species in the genus, ‘Cannabis indicaLam.’ was formally named somewhat later (de Lamarck, J B, 1785,ENCYCLOPEDIE METHODIQUE DE BOTANIQUE, 1(2):694-695), but is still veryold in botanical history. In 1785, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published adescription of a second species of Cannabis, which he named Cannabisindica. Lamarck based his description of the newly named species onplant specimens collected in India. C. indica was described asrelatively short, conical, and densely branched, whereas C. sativa wasdescribed as tall and laxly branched (Schultes R. E. et al, 1974,Harvard University Botanical Museum Leaflets, 23:337-367). C. indicaplants were also described as having short, broad leaflets whereas thoseof C. sativa were characterized as relatively long and narrow (AndersonL. C., 1980, Harvard University Botanical Museum Leaflets, 28:61-69). C.indica plants conforming to Schultes' and Anderson's descriptions mayhave originated from the Hindu Kush mountain range. Because of the oftenharsh and variable (extremely cold winters, and warm summers) climate ofthose parts, C. indica is well-suited for cultivation in temperateclimates.

Three other species names were proposed in the 1800s to distinguishplants with presumably different characteristics (C. macrosperma Stokes,C. chinensis Delile, C. gigantean Vilmorin), none of which are acceptedtoday, although the epithet “indica” lives on as a subspecies of C.sativa (‘C. sativa ssp. indica Lam.’, Small and Cronquist 1976 Supra).

In the 20th century, two new names were added to the 50 liturgy ofproposed ‘Cannabis species: C. ruderalis’ Janischevsky and a hybrid, x‘C. intersita’ Sojak. (Small, E, Jui, P Y, and Lefkovitch, L P, 1976,SYSTEMATIC BOTANY 1(1):67-84; Small and Cronquist 1976 Supra). Further,numerous names have been proposed for horticultural variants of‘Cannabis’ but as of 1976, “very few of these have been validlypublished as formal taxa under the International Code of BotanicalNomenclature” (Small and Cronquist 1976 Supra). Moreover, other recentwork continues to focus on higher-order evolutionary relationships ofthe genus. Cannabis has been variously ascribed as belonging to mulberryfamily (Moraceae) (Engler, H G A, Ulmaceae, Moraceae and Urticaceae,pages 59-118 in: A. Engler and K. Prantl eds., 1889, DIE NATURLICHENPFLANZENFAMILIEN 3(1). W. Engelmann, Leipzig, Germany; Judd, W S,Sanders, R W, and Donoghue, M J, 1994, HARVARD PAPERS IN BOTANY 5:1-51;Humphries, C J and Blackmore, S, A review of the classification of theMoraceae, pages 267-277 In: Crane and Blackmore 1989 id.); nettle family(Urticaceae) (Berg, C C, Systematics and phylogeny of the Urticales,pages 193-220, in: P. R. Crane and S. Blackmore eds., 1989, EVOLUTION,SYSTEMATIC, AND FOSSIL HISTORY OF THE HAMAMELIDAE, VOL. 2, HIGHERHAMAMELIDAE, Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.K.); and most recently in itsown family with hops (Humulus), Cannabaceae, or hemp family (Sytsma, KJ, et al, 2002, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 89(9): 1531-1546). While thework of Small and Cronquist 1976 Supra, seemed to effectively confinethe genus to a single species with 2 subspecies (C. sativa s., C. s.indica), each with two varieties (C. s. s. var. sativa, C. s. s. var.spontanea; C.s. i. var. indica, C. s. i. var. Kafiristanica) largely onthe basis of chemotaxonomy and interfertility of all forms, more recentwork (Sytsma et al. 2002 Supra), proposes a two-species concept,resurrecting the binomial C. indica Lam. Since Sytsma et al. (2002)provides no key for discriminating between the species, the dichotomouskey of Small and Cronquist (1976), which accounts for all forms innature, whether wild or domesticated, is preferred to classify thecharacteristics of the plants.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct Cannabis cultivardesignated “ZLT”.

ZLT is a proprietary f1 hybrid cultivar. The mother is a mix of popularmodern designer cannabis genetics, a polyhybrid back cross ofMotorbreath 15. Comprised of Gelato #41 crossed to Motorbreath #15 andthen crossed back to Motorbreath #15. The father is the proprietary f1breeder stud Zuchi.

ZLT produces towering green, white and purple streaking resin-coatedflowers. With very short internodal space and vigorous growthcharacteristics, this cultivar is able to produce very high yields forboth flower and hash production. Yielding as much as 6% from freshfrozen material. Flower clusters have been observed at over 1-1.5′ ofuninterrupted colas.

It is a very hardy plant that is drought and mildew resistant while ableto yield 450-750 grams/m2 in a sea-of-green style grow. The belownumbers are the result of 1 selected phenotype from a population of only10 seeds.

Chemical Profile:

MAX CANNABINOIDS 30.5%

THC 0.5%

THCA 29.1%

CBG 0.2%

CBGA 0.7%

MAX TERPENES 2.24%

a-Pinene 0.04%

b-Pinene 0.06%

b-Myrcene 0.23%

Limonene 0.47%

Terpinolene 0.02%

Linalool 0.23%

b-Caryophyllene 0.60%

a-Humulene 0.15%

b-Eudesmol 0.07%

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a view of the top of a flowering ZLT plant.

FIG. 2 is a close-up view of several ZLT flower clusters on a growingZLT plant.

FIG. 3 is a close-up view of a ZLT flower cluster on a growing ZLTplant.

FIG. 4 is a close-up view of a ZLT flower cluster on a growing ZLTplant.

FIG. 5 is a close-up view of a ZLT flower cluster on a growing ZLTplant.

DETAILED BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

‘ZLT’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions,and the phenotype may vary significantly with variations in environment.The following observations, measurements, and comparisons describe thisplant as grown at Mentone, Calif., when grown in the greenhouse, nurseryor field, unless otherwise noted.

The color chart referenced is standard hexadecimal Web Pantone ColorChart well known to those of ordinary skill in Internet web site design.

-   The plant    -   -   Type (life form and habit).—Herbaceous tap-rooted annual.        -   Classification.—Cultivars of Cannabis sativa.

This cultivated line possesses intoxicating properties, and so theSubspecies sativa and its varieties (var. sativa and spontanea) areeliminated from consideration.

All references cited in this specification, including but not limited topatent publications and non-patent literature, and references citedtherein, are hereby incorporated by reference. The discussion of thereferences herein is intended merely to summarize the assertions made bythe authors and no admission is made that any reference constitutesprior art. Applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy andpertinence of the cited references.

What is claimed is:
 1. A new and distinct cultivar of “Cannabis” plant,as shown and described.